dawn111081 Using Copied Sovereign Images on eBay
eBay seller dawn111081 of NAIRN, United Kingdom, not only stole our 1898 sovereign reverse image without permission, but tried to tell buyers her coin was in "new" condition.

High eBay Feedback is No Guarantee of Integrity or Honesty
When we wrote this page, this eBay member's feedback was 193; with 100% positive according to eBay.
It also demonstrates that high eBay feedback is no indicator of honesty.

Sample Listing 1 - Item 200480216911
Listed in category Coins Coins British Victoria (1837-1901) Sovereign

Queen Victoria Gold Sovereign 1898
Hi you are bidding on a Gold Sovereign, Queen Victoria, 1898. New Condition. Any questions just ask. Thanks

Sample Listing 2 - Item 200480505940
Listed in category Coins Coins British Victoria (1837-1901) Sovereign

Queen Victoria Gold Half Sovereign 1898
Hi you are bidding on a Gold Half Sovereign, Queen Victoria, 1898. New Condition. Any questions just ask. Thanks

What's Wrong?
We invest a great deal of time, effort, and cost into creating some of the best photographic coin images on the internet. We strongly object when lazy and dishonest people decide to use them without a by your leave or thanks, doing so in competition with us.
Copyright theft is dishonest. We recommend you avoid doing business with dishonest dealers.
This particular eBay seller not only stole our (old) high quality images of a 1898 sovereign, she falsely claimed it was in "New Condition".
It is always possible, even likely, that sellers who steal photographs do not own a similar coin, and have the intention to totally defraud potential buyers.
The vendor is not only cheating us by stealing our copyright images, he is fraudulently or ignorantly misleading and deceiving all potential buyers. Gaining pecuniary advantage by deception is the definition of fraud.

Blink & Miss
There are so many people, including eBay members, stealing our images, that every time we go to bed, or take a break, there is a danger that we miss a few of them. In this case, we were travelling, and our hotel, in a small Austrian village, reported its modem as being faulty, so we could not easily get an internet connection. On our return, we had received a report from an eBay Coin.Forgery.eBay forum member, with the details of this auction. We did get to view it before it was taken down, but unfortunately did not manage to get a screen capture. Because of this, we have shown her relisting, which clearly shows the coin was not in "new" condition. Whether dawn111081 was deliberately deceiving potential buyers, or negligently through ignorance, we do not know. Many people delude themselves into believing that their coins are in mint condition. Wishful thinking may explain it, but it still does not excuse deception.

Half or Full Sovereign? - Who Knows?
Probably not dawn111081!
We noted that her first auction listing described the coin as a sovereign, but we recall seeing it listed under the eBay "half sovereign" category, but for her second listing, she had placed it in the "sovereign" category, but the item titles and description states it to be a "half sovereign". If she does not know, how can she expect any potential buyers to know? Are they supposed to guess?
Actually we find it surprisingly common that people do not always know whether what they own is a sovereign or a half sovereign. In the good old days when gold sovereigns and half sovereigns were used in circulation, everybody could tell the difference, even a five year old child. Nowadays, it seems that people are so much dumber that they can no longer tell.
It also provides an interesting example of how not to sell something on eBay. If you confuse the customers, they are likely to make the safe assumption, and bid on the basis that it may be a half sovereign, in which case the seller will not get the best price if it turns out they were selling a sovereign. Conversely, if the buyer believed they were getting a sovereign, then received only a half sovereign, they would quite rightly feel aggrieved, and would be likely to demand a refund, or price adjustment, and may well leave negative feedback, although many still seem afraid to do so before of retaliation.
If she had sold to a competitive dealer, like us, we would have paid her the appropriate price for the appropriate coin, without any hassle.

Seller ID	Item Number	Date	Description	Price
dawn111081	200480216911	5th Jun 2010	Queen Victoria Gold Sovereign 1898	�80
dawn111081	200480505940	6th Jun 2010	Queen Victoria Gold Half Sovereign 1898	�50 / �147.77

Price
The seller was asking a starting price of �50 for this listing as a half sovereign. but �80 as a full sovereign.
Whatever the items "sell" for, after eBay's greedy 10% selling fees, and possible PayPal charges, the crook may have been much better off selling the coins to us, instead of stealing our photographs.
It appears to have sold, at the third attempt, for �147.77. If this was for a sovereign, then dawn111081 has seriously short-changed herself. If it was for a half sovereign, then she has successfully bamboozled the buyer.

Question & Answer
dawn111081 gives some shocking answers when confronted with evidence of her fraudulent and dishonest behaviour.

Dear dawn111081,
eBay requires that the image must be of the actual coin for sale. You have stolen these images from a web site.

*Dear ,*
my camera is broken
- dawn111081

Dear dawn111081,*
That's not the point. Lawrence Chard will be getting eBay to remove your listing!

*Dear ,*
shut the fuck up and mind your on business your annoying the wrong person you idiot
- dawn111081

Dear dawn111081,*
OK moron, you are dealing with a member of Coin.Forgery.eBay so just let's see who is annoying the wrong person!

Dear ,*
wot ever f off freek (sic). my dad works for ebay so i will get your account
closed for harrassment (sic) dont (sic) message (sic) me again i (sic) took the pics of coin myself
- dawn111081

*Dear dawn111081,*
You have already been reported.
You are a liar because the images you stole are digitally watermarked and what is more, you will be given your own page on one of the Chard web sites as a crook - everyone who does what you did gets that.
I hope your father - if that bit is true - will be equally pleased that you are bandying his position about!
Your emails have already been forwarded to the correct department in eBay.

eBay Guilty of Negligence or Complicity
We will be reporting this example of copyright abuse using our standard Statutory Declaration via the eBay VeRO programme, and wait to see if they chose to action or ignore our report. We look forward to taking legal action against eBay for their negligence and / or complicity if they fail to take down the offending material promptly.

Selling Gold Sovereigns & Other Coins on eBay
We point out that sellers may often get more money, for less effort, by selling to a specialised dealer, such as us, rather than via eBay.

Copyright Notice
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